Spreading the word
U.S. Navy Petty Officer First Class Derek Carpenter on Monday, Nov. 10, will return to Bonners Ferry for the first time in more than three years.
The 27-year-old son of Rhonda and Mitch Vogl of Bonners Ferry and Ken and Joy Carpenter of Moyie Springs has been away, doing two tours of duty in Iraq. Derek will attend the Veterans Day ceremony at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, at Veterans Memorial Park next to Boundary County Library in downtown Bonners Ferry.
He will be welcomed home with a 6-foot banner, which will be placed near Boundary County Museum at the south end of the Kootenai River Bridge. The banner was donated by Build-a-Sign, an Internet company that gives them to veterans who come home.
“You design it on their Web site,” said Rhonda Vogl. “It’s user friendly and has his picture on it.”
A 1999 graduate of Bonners Ferry High School, Derek will be home for one week before heading to Whiting Field in Milton, Fla.
When Derek arrived from Iraq, he was greeted at the airport in Pensacola, Fla., by his ombudsman, the USO and others.
• A 972-pound pumpkin grown by Rick Maggi of Bonners Ferry was dropped on a replica of the stock exchange — labeled the “mock exchange” — at Boundary Tractor on Friday.
When the pumpkin crashed onto the “mock exchange,” the impact flushed out green balloons, which represented money floating away.
An estimated 80 people attended the second annual pumpkin drop.
Store owner Cal Russell had customers guess the pumpkin’s weight. Alyssa Pinkerton won with a guess of 989 pounds. Sydney Nelson guessed 950 for second place, and Kelsey English took third with a 1,000-pound guess.
• Bill and Diane Leach hosted a Halloween party on Friday night at their Bonners Ferry home. They went all out to entertain youngsters Kiara, Grant and Danica Pierson; Grace Coughlin; sons Henry and James Leach; and Thomas and Malachi Mooney-Rivkin.
The children were treated to mummy dogs, vampire punch and moose tongue in Bill’s homemade barbecue sauce. In the buckets of horror — where children could feel around, but could not see what they were touching — were zombie eyes, the tongue of Dracula, a mummy hand and the brain of Frankenstein.
• In other Halloween news, Mike McCollum won the costume contest at Great Northwest Event Center’s party on Saturday night. McCollum was dressed as an accident victim. He won $20.
• Bob Freund of Naples won the recent Cowboy Fast Draw match held on the deck at Good Grief Cafe & Grill in Eastport.
George Wilson of Bonners Ferry won the Consolation Division.
Freund and Wilson were among about three dozen folks from Idaho and British Columbia who competed. The event was sponsored by the cowboy action shooting program through Bonners Ferry’s Kootenai Valley Rifle & Pistol Club.
Participants used 19th century single-action, .45 Colt revolvers loaded with wax bullets powered by a shotgun primer. The “victims” were round metal targets with yellow LEDs attached to an electronic timer. Three wins were required to advance in each stage of the competition.
• Judy Dobbins of Eastport recently enrolled in the American Quarter Horse Association Horseback Riding Program. The association recognizes members for time spent with related activities, including trail rides, shows, working cattle and pleasure driving.
• Several people were thanked for making clothing protectors and quilt/lap robes for residents in the skilled nursing unit at Boundary Community Hospital.
Those commended during the reception were Leanna Wedel and Tanya Nystrom with Mountain View Mennonite Church, Dorothy Unruh of Woodland Mennonite Church, Jean Wattenbarger, Virginia Cowley and Gail Olson, all of First Baptist Church, Kyla Scott and Verna Belden with the Church of Christ LDS, Wendy Kramer with Free Methodist Church, Freda Grove with United Methodist Church; Patricia Dohetry and Elaine Robins with Mt. Hall Community Church, Leslie and Jeannett Levig and Robin Lammers with First Lutheran Church, Callie Gahr, owner of Callie’s Niche, and Gwen Albers, Amy Anderson, Toni Hollingsworth, Darlene Miller, Jeneen Schuler and Robby Thomas with Helping Hands of Naples.
Others recognized were Dottie Bauman, Lillian Clements, Marge Gutherie, Bette Farrell, Mary Frederickson, Joanna Johnson, Jennifer Jones, Joann Mackey, Barbara Russell, Lori Sheppard and Bev Hokanson.
• Former Bonners Ferry resident Kristen Jordahl Gilje’s four panel acrylic painting will be featured during a Saturday, Nov. 8, open house and reception at Trinity Lutheran Church at 812 N. Fifth St. in Coeur d’Alene.
The event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. will be held to mark the installation of the artist’s piece at the church. Gilje at 11 a.m. will present the background for the art work entitled Come to the Water.
Gilje lives and works in Bellingham, Wash., where she paints in oils, acrylics, watercolors and silk dye on silk. Part of her work includes designing and making artwork for churches, including stained glass windows, silk banners and paraments for worship use.
Gilje has loaned silk banners to churches all over the United States as an outreach for Holden Village in Chelan, Wash., where she worked as artist in residence for almost 10 years. She is a regular teacher at the Grunewald Guild in Leavenworth, Wash., and has shown her silk banners and lectured at Yale Divinity School.
Spreading the Word is about the people of Boundary County. If you’ve gone on a vacation, have a wedding planned, are moving or anything else you’d like to share, call Gwen Albers at 267-5521, or send an e-mail to galbers@cdapress.com.